Inflation of tubeless tires on vehicle wheels has proved to be a problem. When a tubeless tire is mounted on a wheel, the sidewalls do not normally form sealing engagement with the rim of the wheel. Various mechanical techniques have been utilized in the past to bulge the sidewalls of the tire cut and cause engagement of the tire beads with the wheel rim whereupon the tire may be inflated through the conventional tire valve. Such techniques have proved to be awkward and time consuming and have not been readily adaptable to some types of tires, such as radial ply and glassbelted tires.
In my U.S. Pat. No. 3,552,469, issued Jan. 5, 1971, I have disclosed apparatus for inflating tubeless tires which utilizes a simple annular tubular member having orifices spaced around the periphery thereof through which air is injected into a tire through the gap between the tire bead and wheel rim. The device does not employ any working parts which must slide or otherwise fit exactly on the tire or wheel. There is no wear of the parts and the problem of accurate dimensions is considerably reduced. The present invention provides a modified version of such structure wherein the bead seating structure is incorporated into a conventional tire mounting apparatus to facilitate use of a single station for mounting, de-mounting and inflation.